From Pine View Farm

Life under the Regency, Reviving the Past Dept. (Updated) (Updated Again) 2

This is embarrassing:

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has quietly declared April 2010 Confederate History Month, bringing back a designation in Virginia that his two Democratic predecessors — Mark Warner and Tim Kaine — refused to do.

Republican governors George Allen and Jim Gilmore issued similar proclamations. But in 2002, Warner broke with their action, calling such proclamations, a “lightning rod” that does not help bridge divisions between whites and blacks in Virginia.

One of my ancestors was a General in the CSA. Several others wore the grey. I honor my ancestors.

I do not honor the lost cause.

They lost and it is good that they lost.

Certainly, some of the persons who fought wearing the grey were honorable men by the lights of their times.

That was then. We–well, some of us–have learned much since then.

It was not an honorable cause, whatever Robert E. Lee or Henry Alexander Wise may have thought at the time.

Honoring the lost cause honors racism, bigotry, and slavery.

Those who honor it say more about themselves than they do about the lost cause.

It is time to stop honoring the lost cause, to stop honoring racism, bigotry, and slavery, even as we may still treasure the memory of our ancestors.

News story via Balloon Juice.

Addendum, the Next Morning:

The Regent and the UDC.

Addendum-De-Dum-Dum:

The Regent misunremembered that whole slavery thingee.

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2 comments

  1. Karen

    April 7, 2010 at 7:59 am

    I don’t think your governor likes people who are “different”, but that’s how he comes across.

    What he’s doing is hurtful & I hope it detracts from the tourism he’s hoping to attract.

     
  2. Frank

    April 7, 2010 at 10:20 am

    He disguised himeself as a “moderate” for the campaign and he knows how to behave in public. but he’s as wingnutty as they get.